Rising Stars
An award-winning anthology of emerging young voices in UK children’s poetry.
Pop Up collaborated with independent children’s publisher Otter-Barry Books, to produce our first ever publication: poetry anthology Rising Stars. Rising Stars launched the work of five young debut poets active in the spoken word circuit, and three under-graduate illustrators from Birmingham City University – all under 26.
Contributors include poets Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Ruth Awolola, Abigail Cook, Jay Hulme and Amina Jama, and illustrators Elanor Chuah, Joe Manners and Riya Chowdhury.
Each poet produced eight new poems for 10-14 year-old readers; and the illustrators created over 40 illustrations to accompany them. A suite of online and video resources were developed to inspire young readers to write poetry themselves.
Rising Stars received a ‘special commendation’ at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education’s CLiPPA poetry prize at London’s National Theatre in 2018. In 2019 the anthology was featured in EmpathyLab’s Read for Empathy Guide of books to build empathy.
“This sparkling anthology features the work of five talented young poets. Each has a distinctive voice, and every one of the poems in this collection will catch the imagination of young people. Rising Stars emphasises the unique power of poetry for young people as a means to share ideas, thoughts and feelings… It’s exciting to read, will be exciting to share. Congratulations to all those involved in its creation.”